1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to an apparatus for storing heating pads or blankets in a scrolled configuration and that is integrated into the heating pad or blanket itself.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known to store electric heating pads in a variety of containers. Generally, some sort of folding or rolling of the heating pad or blanket is necessary to fit a pad into the container. A problem that arises is that the process of folding a heating pad may cause kinks in the heating elements within the pad that eventually lead to breakage of the heating elements.
A convenient way around the kinking problems associated with folding heating pads is to provide storage systems that allow the rolling, rather than folding, of the heating pad such as is described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,149 B1, issued Dec. 3, 2002, to Montagnino, J., for an ELECTRIC HEATING PAD STORAGE CONTAINER, which discloses a plastic tube into which a rolled up heating pad may be inserted. Also disclosed is a sleeve bag with a drawstring into which the heating pad may be inserted prior to insertion into the rigid plastic tube.
Anyone who has ever rolled up a sheet of material for insertion into a carrying tube has found on occasion that they failed to roll it tight enough and it won't fit into the tube. The sheet must then be unrolled and then rerolled tighter to fit it into the tube. The same problem can arise with a rolled heating pad or blanket. Moreover, as the carrying tube is separate and apart from the heating pad or blanket itself, it is subject to misplacement or loss, leaving the consumer without a storage means.